The Butcher

This was one of those horror movies where you hope all the characters get killed quickly, because they're so annoying. They're not just annoying, they are annoying clichés of characters.

Obnoxious frat boy? Check, he's here, let's hope he gets knocked off first. Sexy lesbians? Yup, they play that for the little bit it's worth. Logical, level-headed survivor type girl? Yeah, you'll spot her in the first two minutes. Screaming teenagers? Sure enough.

This is an attempt to get some of the atmosphere of other horror movies and make it work in a mix. It doesn't work, it just comes across as a blatant ripoff without humor or originality of any kind. During the first ten minutes you'll find yourself hoping that the bad guy mops them up quick and then goes to Cancun for a vacation with some margaritas and maybe beach babes. That would have been a huge improvement over what you get, which is the worst and most predictable elements of the last ten slasher movies you saw.

If you saw the new version of Texas Chainsaw Masacre, Wrong Turn, People Under the Stairs, and a few others, you've already seen this movie. It steals scenes and almost line by line from these others. It is so predictable, I knew what characters were going to do or say down to their exact words a minute before they did just that. There's a chainsaw, there's even an engagement ring, bottled body parts, barbed-wire , and even the ending is a copied. Also, the acting, especially from the mother, is terrible. Absolutely nothing is particularly original. Do not waste your time. It stinks. And as a horror movie, there's not even too much horror. Also it is mis-titled. Was obviously supposed to be called "The Farmer" or something like that judging from what probably was intended as a signature line "It's Harvest Time!". There's no mention of anything connected to a butcher. P.S. Venom is a MUCH better movie.

While driving to Las Vegas with his college friends Rachel (Catherine Wreford), Liz (Tiffany Kristensen), Atlanta (Ashley Rebecca Hawkins), Sophie (Myiea Coy) and Adam (Tom NageL), the selfish and wealthy Mark (Alan Ritchson) decides to take a shortcut. Mark stresses with the driver of an old tow truck, and suddenly he sees a woman crossing the road and has a serious car accident. His friend Liz dies, and Mark and Adam run after the girl, who is wounded. The group decides to seek help while Atlanta stays with the severed body of Liz in the car. They find an old house in the woods where a family of psychopaths lives and they are chased by the insane family.

One that reads my summary above would immediately recalls "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "The Hills Have Eyes", "Wrong Turn", "Timber Falls", "House of Wax", "Wolf Creek", "House of 1000 Corpses" and probably another dozen rip-offs of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and remakes. Therefore, there is no originality in the predictable plot. However, the unknown cast has many young actors and actresses and their performances are not bad. I agree that this routine of repeating and repeating the same storyline is annoying, but "The Butcher" has qualities and is not as bad as mentioned in many reviews. As an incentive to the young cast, my vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Açougueiro" ("The Butcher")

as a big slasher film fan i have to say this one, fulfill it's complement: be a horror movie. But there's just something about and it's the fact that: it's just wrong. When i was watching it at one point i though i was watching, wrong turn, then i star thinking about the Texas chainsaw massacre, then hills have eyes and finally i know what you did last summer, the movie it's basically a mix of all these other movies but unsuccessfully did what those other movies did, it's just so predictable, the scrip it's so weak and far beyond scary, instead of that it's so lame, with this thousands of clichés like "don't go in there" "what it's this place" "he's gonna kill us all" you basically know who's gonna die first and why called it "the butcher" there is no butcher in the film and there is not even a good slaughter, they should have call it "i know what the Texas hills wrong turned last summer" or something, honestly i don't know what a company spend money into making this crappy films. I give it a three because, well it's a horror movie after all, invite some friends over and watch it with pop corns in a boring Saturday afternoon. And for the record i should give this movie a zero but the lesbians really help it.

The script of "The Butcher" was obviously written taking bits from Wrong Turn and The Hills Have Eyes with a little scent of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Although not so violent as the latter, this flick doesn't fail to the genre: Horror.

However I must ask the Screenwriter why he gave the name "The Butcher" to this film. A most suitable name would be "The Insane Family". I'll bet you'll say the same thing after seeing this.

The acting is not bad, the special effects are good and the story doesn't run into the clichés usually made, except for the spoken dialogs. Stupid lines and nonsenses like asking if anybody is there in an obvious empty house and calling for help in the woods knowing that the killer is doing a chase was a completely dumb thing to write making it unoriginal as seen in other films countless times.

I must point out the unreal factor not exclusive of this movie but always seen in others of the same genre. After the death of their female friend, there's some convincing acting about her death, but then is all forgotten and everyone is "cool" and behaving as if nothing horrible has happened.

Nevertheless I found "The Butcher" entertaining and far better than "Venom" and because it showed a good directing and things that were very different from those movies mentioned. We do not see the usual way of a teenager get killed like in Jason Friday 13th or Halloween and we have always the perspective where the killer is and where the victims are.

There's some slow pace at the middle of it and the gore is not intense but all the action and the subsequent end turns this into a mildly enjoyable time spent.

Definitely a good renting. (Actually, the best thing, and if you can, it's to try to see it free).